"Let Your Fingers Do the Talking": Computer Communication in an Alaskan Rural School

Part of the North Slope Borough District, the two schools in the Inupiaq village of Wainwright, Alaska, began to take advantage of communications technology for teaching, administration, and staff training purposes in 1983. At that time, three teachers took a course offered by the University of Alas...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author Barnhardt, Carol
Format Report
LanguageEnglish
Published 1984
Subjects
Alaska (Wainwright)
Alaska Natives
American Indian Education
Audio Equipment
Communications
Distance Education
Educational Administration
Elementary Secondary Education
Eskimos
Gifted
Inservice Teacher Education
Instructional Materials
Learn Alaska Network
Microcomputers
Networks
Rural Education
Rural Schools
Special Education
Staff Development
Teleconferencing
Telephone Communications Systems
University of California San Diego
Alaska
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Summary:Part of the North Slope Borough District, the two schools in the Inupiaq village of Wainwright, Alaska, began to take advantage of communications technology for teaching, administration, and staff training purposes in 1983. At that time, three teachers took a course offered by the University of Alaska via computer and audio-conference on the subject of using computers as communications tools. The teachers altered the increasing reliance of the schools on audio-conferencing for administrative and instructional uses. They began to use computers to communicate with supervisors in other locations, to teach math drills and practices, to teach science, and to improve research projects. However, the most interesting use of the computer was as a communications tool for instructional and administrative purposes. Using the computer and one of many electronic networks, students exchanged information with students in California; teachers exchanged information with other teachers and with supervisors; administrators sent notes regarding travel schedules, book orders, test scores, and evaluation procedures; and university instructors presented information about the academic consequences of computers. Wainwright teachers expected to expand computer use for the language arts program and social studies. Special education, staff training, and software use were key issues in the move to computer communications. (SB)